Egg and bacon pie recipe

As a child egg and bacon pie was a traditional picnic dish and I loved it. This is not a quiche. The eggs are unbroken and the texture and flavour of the combination of short crust pastry, floury egg yolks, silky egg whites and thick cut bacon is out of this world.

I had forgotten all about this pie until The Chicken Lady served it when we went the Hampton Court Flower Show two years ago. I could have guzzled the entire pie but politeness made me hold back and only accept two slices. Since then I have dreamt about it, on and off.

Faced with a glut off eggs this week I was determined to make a bacon and egg pie. Danny was intrigued.
“We never ate this dish in Ireland.”
“It’s the sort of thing that you might have found in an Edwardian picnic hamper, served on proper plates with crisp white napkins and lashings of homemade lemonade. It sounds dull – no herbs and just salt and pepper – but it’s delicious. I promise.”

But could I replicate the dream pie? I sniffed about on the internet for inspiration. All the recipes that I found broke the eggs, used quiche dishes or streaky bacon. I wanted to make a deep pie with a lid. Eventually I rang my mum who agreed that a pie with a crust was the right place to go – more substantial and economical.
“As far as I can remember I put the bacon on the top. Back then bacon was cheap.”

I used my enamel pie dish. Having greased it I lined it with pastry, broke in six whole eggs and laid two slices of bacon over these. Then feeling like a latter day Mrs Beaton I added another six eggs, finishing off with two slices of bacon under the crust.

I backed the pie in Andrew (on the bottom rack with the extension collar on) for an hour at 175 degrees and let it chill completely before supper. I served it with a simple coleslaw using a fresh cabbage from the garden.

Danny loved it and normally he doesn’t like shortcrust pastry. This is a huge relief as I’d like to bake this regularly. Perfect comfort food for parties, picnics and lunches.

Grease a 9 ½ inch (24cm) pie dish well.
Roll out about two thirds of the pastry on a floured board and line the pie dish including the rim.
Crack six eggs into the pastry lined dish. Sprinkle with a little ground white pepper.
Place two slices of thick cut bacon gently over the eggs.
Crack another six eggs into the pie dish and finish off with the other two slices of bacon and sprinkle with a little more ground white pepper.
Roll out the rest of the pastry to make a lid for the pie. Make two small slits in the top and bake at 175 degrees for about an hour.
Chill before serving.

25 Comments

This looks like a lovely pie, although I do not like eggs unless they are beaten in a quiche or cake.. but I can still appreciate a good recipe. This is perfect picnic fodder. I used up my glut of eggs and bananas this week making Banana Bread and Tayberry and Lemon Loaf. Check out my blog if you fancy a look at the recipes. All the best. KG

Ah! That takes me back…. In my smallholder childhood, it was a choice of picnic pies, sausagemeat and egg (which was beaten, and with onion, so a bit quichey) or sausagemeat with tomato and onion (a bit pizza-y!) I’m sure the sausage meat was often home made, and as you say, egg gluts can get out of hand! Brown homemade pastry too… These were both lovely hot, but better cold, with sand, and the wind blowing hair in the mouth….
Thanks for reminding me!

This is such a nostalgic recipe for me! I was brought up in Cumbria and Bacon and Egg pie was usually on the menu when we went to my Gran’s house for tea. I always thought it was a just Cumbrian thing – my husband is from Manchester, he had never heard of it before but is now a convert. Whenever we are going on a long journey I make one for the road as it travels surprisingly well and means we don’t have to eat the usual junk on offer when you’re on the move.
Great recipe choice!

I should think that just about anything encased in short crust would be wonderful- tomato pie comes to mind. Hmmm. That one would be good on a picnic, too, I think.

Unsmoked bacon is next to impossible to buy here in the states; do you think it would be okay to make it with the smoked, fatty stuff that is available to us, or do you think ham would be better, in that case?

I never liked my dear Mum’s bacon and egg pies – at the time I couldn’t stand any fat on meat!. These days I’d make one with softenly sauted chopped onions on the bottom, a sprinkle of chopped and also sauted streaky bacon, and with the eggs litely mixed as I’m not a fan of egg white. Stay wel away from adding frozen vege. The variation with a layer of sausage meat on the lower level would be okay as long as it was really good sausage meat.

Whichever way – this is a delicious pie that really does taste better warm, at room temperaure or cooked and taken out of the fridge an hour or so before.

Confession – I do like it made with a good flakey pastry. A bacon and egg pie sasanach? Nope – I’m a Kiwi!

Like Casalba, this a new one on me too – but I’m not sure that I’d like it… I’m not usually fussy but for some reason this doesn’t appeal at all – tonight I’ll probably dream about having to eat it out of politeness!!!

The recipe looks wonderful and simple – since I like both pies and egg and bacon, it sounds like the perfect combination. I’d probably have to try it out with a smaller version though. Since we have quail in our garden, and 8 hens eggs = 8×6 = 48 quail eggs, that’s rather a lot to crack.

When I was younger, my mum used to make a sausage and egg pie but that was sausages, stuffing and hard boiled eggs in pastry, so it was a very different pie.